CPIC develops family of unique fiberglass products

Chongqing Polycomp International Corp. (CPIC), the world's third-largest fiberglass manufacturer by installed volume, has developed a family of unique fiberglass products with a flat rather than round cross-section that facilitates higher fiber loading levels and better mechanical properties (including higher impact strength) in injection-molded thermoplastic composites while reducing warpage in thin wall sections. The flat glass enhances thermoplastic processing by lowering resin shear, providing better fluidity (increasing spiral flow), reducing friction and viscosity buildup, and lowering fiber entanglement and breakage since the flat fibers tend to flow in planar sheets like mica rather than rolling and tumbling like conventional round glass filaments. This in turn helps provide for a more isotropic dispersion and also allows higher fiber-volume fractions (FVFs) to be achieved with no other change because the fibers pack more closely as has been confirmed by scanning-electron micrograph (SEM) images. It also helps reduce molding pressures and enables the same part to be molded on smaller injection presses with fewer gates.